Friday, July 6, 2012

2012 Tour de France, Stage 6 Results

The biggest talking point of Stage 6, from Epernay to Metz, will be the crash that took out half the peloton with 26 km to go. Not only did it force at least three men to abandon the Tour but it caused the likes of Fränk Schleck, Pierre Rolland, Alejandro Valverde, Mark Cavendish and large number of others to lose significant time. The two big pre-race favorites for the general classification - Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins -survived the carnage near Gorze and so too did most of the sprint specialists with the notable exception of Mark Cavendish. Cancellara, Evans, Wiggins, van Garderen, Nibali, and Basso survived. Schleck, Valverde, and a host of others lost 2'09”; Gesink lost 3'31” while Ryder Hesjedal limped to the finish, losing 13'31”, nursing horrible wounds and moral that was shot to pieces because they've essentially been put out of contention for the yellow jersey even before the first mountain stages. Meanwhile , there was still the battle for the prestige of a stage victory taking place up ahead.

Lotto-Belisol had already conceded that it wouldn't have their main sprinter in one hundred percent condition as André Greipel had crashed twice in the early stanza of the stage, but it dominated the front peloton that swallowed up the final escape, Dave Zabriskie inside the final two kilometers. With four men at the front going in to the final turn it seem possible that Greipel would become the first man to take a hat-trick of sprint stages since Mario Cipollini in 1999 but he was injured and not able to fire on all cylinders. Instead it was the other multiple stage winner from 2012 who proved that he's resilient, cunning and super fast - Peter Sagan came off the wheel of the Lotto Express inside the final 300m, just as a member of Vacansoleil's lead-out train snapped a chain. From there the man in the green jersey put daylight between him and the next best in Metz, André Greipel.

"I'm very happy when I can win a stage like today," Sagan said. "Yesterday I was unlucky with the crash but also content that nothing was broken and that I didn't have any injuries. This is already more than I ever expected. It's surprised me, too. I wanted to do well but I need to say that this is only the start of the Tour de France and tomorrow is when the race really begins because it's the climbs and I think that after two weeks, by the start of the third week, it's going to be really hard. I want the green jersey and I think I can hold on to it all the way to Paris."

Lampre had a bad day: nine punctures, fours crashes, Viganò had to abandon, and Scarponi was in the group that finished with a gap of 2'09" to the lead group. Hondo explained the big crash, "Viganò was putting Petacchi's shoe covers in his jersey when some riders ahead slowed down. Davide had only one hand on the handlebar, he couldn't brake properly and he fell in the ditch on the roadside, then all the rest of the group crashed, Scarponi too". Lloyd and Marzano crashed during the stage but were uninjured.

Tomorrow: Stage 7, Tomblaine -La Planche des Belles Filles, 199 km. TdF analysis by Jean-François Pescheux:
"Much has been said and written about this one. This stage is obviously making its Tour debut, since it starts from Tomblaine (the main town of the Meurthe-et-Moselle canton) and heads towards the only ski resort in the Haute-Saône, which the Tour has never visited before but where it may return if the course delivers on its promise. There is much more to the stage than just the finish, as the Col de la Grosse Pierre and the Col du Mont de Fourche make it a real leg breaker! The result? This stage is going to hurt. Then the best will duke it out on La Planche des Belles Filles. An 8.5% gradient with certain sections at 13%. A gruelling climb."

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